About Me

Child of God, wife, mother. Wanna-be lay theologian. Geek of all things math. Crafter of many things.
Born in the Midwest, raised in the South, and loved living in New England as a newlywed. Currently living in Kansas wheat country as a gluten-free gal. I'm wife to Adrian since September 2007. I'm mother to Hans (June 2008), Gretchen (October 2010), Martin (June 2013), and Heidi (December 2015). I'm a child of God, beloved of Him since before the creation of the world. I am blessed.

Monday, November 07, 2011

(Bear with my background info, before I dive into blessings. I'm not complaining, but laying the stage.)

Round 2 for major storms this fall in Hartford. (Round 1 was Irene a few months ago.) Last week we got hit with a weird and totally out-of-the-ordinary snowstorm in October (29th and 30th). Only about 6 inches "stuck" but more fell and melted before and after the main storm. The problem was the leaves still on the trees, the moist trees from previous rainfall, some winds, and a partridge in the pear tree. . . all combined to make heavy branches and therefore lots of limb falls.

Unreal amounts of tree limbs all around. Driving through parts of the area, it's like a forest curbside, with people piling all the fallen branches along the road for the city to pick up. Some of the trees in our apartment complex have more bulk on the ground than still on the tree. Results were widespread power outages, and lengthy ones at that. Most of our friends were out of power for close to a week - 6 days for us, longer for others.

Our basement has drainage issues, so heavy rains (or melting snow) always mean a small puddle in corners, but we have a basement sump pump which does its job. . . unless there's no power. *ahem* With Irene and heavy rainfall, we lost power for 2 days or so, and our neighbor got a hold of a generator after a day, to pump out water. This time around, no generators to be had, so our basement sat in 1" of water for 6 solid days. The humidity was amazing down there (in a bad way ;-D). The problem was that our snow quickly melted because of the fluctuating temperatures in the low-to-mid 30's throughout the week, and the melted snow congregated in our basement ;-).

So anyway, rotten week, right? Nah. Adrian and I truly felt uplifted and blessed by God's provision for us. Great is His faithfulness:

Dear friends from church took us into their home for 6 nights in a row, while we were without power. They truly have the gift of hospitality.

The above dear friends are empty-nesters and also grandparents - perfect combo, with extra space in their home and all the "gadgets" (high chair, toys, crib, etc.) to make hosting a young family easy.

I survived power outage #2 while staying on the GAPS diet.

A gracious hostess who allowed me to partake of food or decline, depending on my own dietary needs.

Most of our freezer/fridge food was saved, transferred in time to a friend's fridge/freezer.

My kefir grains and sourdough starter appear to have survived :-D.

Nothing of intrinsic value was lost in our basement water-log. Yes, we took some losses, but nothing we can't live without.

Grace to thank God for the losses and see them as freeing, not a bad thing. Forced purging can be good!

Outside of a handful of non-important books, the rest of the books all survived, without water damage.

Friends willing to watch the kiddos for a few hours while Adrian and I raced against the humidity to bring up the belongings we wanted to save, when the basement flooded.

A friend's large basement play area for expending 3 year old energy on cold days last week.

Warmth and heat at our host home!

Underground power lines that made electricity in our friends' home possible :-)

A week without internet. Yes, this was definitely a good thing.

The kiddos doing remarkably well with the upheaval of the past week. (Usually Hans' attitude rapidly digresses with major changes like visitors or vacation.)

Our church and Christian fellowship. It was so neat to see the body of Christ help each other, those who did have power (definitely the minority!) open their homes for bed, food, or laundry.

Warm days this week (to spend out doors!) while back home with no elbow room indoors yet (as we ready the basement for re-habitation of the items currently invading our living/dining room).

Friends who immediately and cheerfully drove 30 minutes south to pick up me + kiddos, when we got a flat tire the day we finally make it home. . . these the same friends who just hosted us for 6 days!

A dedicated hubby who spent most of Saturday hauling soggy items to the dumpster and then spent Sunday afternoon and evening "de-oxing" our ditch, scrubbing down the basement with an anti-mold solution.